Burial At Sea



Ophelia, John Everett Millais

Colossians 2:12-14

...buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Many cultures and subcultures throughout history have practiced burial at sea. If not the actual sea then the closest body of water (this includes flushing your goldfish down the toilet). Maybe you've seen films featuring a Norse Viking ship burial. Or maybe you've read about Hindus immersing the ashes of the deceased in the Ganges River. Obviously the Navy is the military branch that practices sea burial the most often. You may also be aware that many Christian groups allow for burial at sea. But what if I told you that all Christians (minus Quakers) experience a watery burial? If you are considering becoming a Christian you may be presently preparing for that specific ritual. The ritual of a waterborne burial that I am referring to is the rite of Baptism. It may sound strange to describe this Christian introductory ritual this way but that is exactly how St. Paul refers to it in the second chapter of his letter to the Colossians.

It is with great excitement that I introduce art from the Pre-Raphaelites to this blog. This art movement produced some of the most subtly beautiful depictions of humans and nature ever put on canvas. The Pre-Raphaelites were a coalition of painters, sculptors, art critics and poets founded in founded in 1848 by John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (or as I refer to them Kelly, Michelle and Beyoncé) to create beautiful music... I mean painting. The Pre Raphaelites goal was just what their name states: they wanted to bring art back to a time "pre-Raphael." They wanted to wash off some of the influences of certain academic and compositional concerns of later Renaissance and Mannerism. It was part of an effort to find an earlier, purer painting. This art may seem academic and detailed to contemporary viewers but it was all a campaign of un-learning: an attempt to regain a lost innocence in Art. The Pre Raphaelites concocted something new, different and beautiful. As one of the founders of this movement Sir John Everett Millais' paintings embody all of the aesthetic triumphs of the Pre-Raphaelites. As one of these Englishmen with re-focus on the greatest era of European painting, he turned his gaze to creating a painting that illustrates the greatest writer in the English language: William Shakespeare. Millais' painting Ophelia is a masterwork that honors the intensity of naturalistic painting, illustrates the narrative detail of Shakespeare's tragedy(Hamlet) and displays the complexity of Ophelia's anguish. The anguish that led Ophelia to commit suicide by throwing herself into a river.

It is with great trepidation that I attempt to discuss Hamlet. My mother-in-law (who I am friends with and occasionally reads this blog) is an English teacher who has devoted many years, movie tickets and conversations to the subject of Hamlet. So I'm probably risking good standing with my in-laws by exposing my amateur grasp of this great play. Hopefully they give me credit for linking the Wikipedia article (because you can trust eveerything that Wikipedia says... Right?) So the following is my synopsis of the play. Hamlet was the son of the King of Denmark (his father was also named Hamlet so I guess that makes the main character Hamlet, Jr.... or Hamlet F. Baby). Hamlet's father was slain and appears to his son (as a ghost) and tells Hamlet that he must avenge his father's death. To add to that the slain King's wife (Hamlet's mother, Gertrude) has been deceived into marrying his murderer... who happens to be his brother Claudius... who is now currently serving as the King of Denmark (this script was originally written to be a telenovela). Hamlet is overtaken with a zeal for vengeance. Hamlet has a lover/girlfriend/courtier named Ophelia. Blinded by rage Hamlet mistakenly kills her father (mistakenly thinking that he was Claudius). This leads Ophelia to madness and she later plunges herself in water to take her life. Eventually tragedy begets tragedy and in the end everyone is dead (like the end of The Departed). Strangely enough the story of Christ has a parallel with the tale of Hamlet.

Is anyone surprised at this point that I am making comparison between Christ, Hamlet and Ophelia? If so then you are probably a first time reader of this blog. Maybe it's actually more of a contrast... but I honestly do see a connection between those three when I read Colossians 2:12-14. Follow my reasoning for a minute... Jesus was the son of the King of Heaven. His Father (God) is eternal and made revealed to Jesus that he must embark on his own mission to give his Father's gift of eternal life. The eternal King's wife (Israel, Jesus' motherland) has been deceived into being led by the killer of his prophets. This is where St. Paul's reasoning in Colossians steps in. Jesus' ministry was marked by opposition to Pharisaic legalism. It's actually what got him killed. St. Paul (who was a former Pharisee) held the same opposition to the overt legalism in Christianity. Through many of the blog entries concerning Paul you have seen his letters to churches around the Mediterranean arguing against the claims of the Judaizers (ancient Christians who argued that all followers of Christ, Jewish and non-Jewish, must practice all of the Law of the Old Testament). This included male circumcision and other practices included in the 613 Mitzvot of Scripture. Paul and Jesus never argued against the practices of Jewish law (they both were circumcised, fasted, attended synagogue and temple, celebrated the Holy Days, etc), rather they argued against being obligatorily enslaved to them. The commands of the Law, like the Sabbath, were made for Man not man for the Sabbath. They are spiritual aides to lead one to focus on the goal, which is God and godliness: they are not the goal in and of themselves. To put these practices on those that are not required to is to make these spiritual aides a spiritual burden. Like Hamlet, Jesus was overtaken with a zeal inspired by his Father. But this was not a hunger to exact vengeance but a longing to show mercy. He desired to show mercy to all, free and unfettered by religious practices that become misunderstood. So that brings us to Ophelia. Like Hamlet, Jesus also had a lover and future bride. Her name is Ecclesia... don't get all scandalized on me, Ecclesia is the Greek word that refers to The Church. It means "the called out ones." Like God was married to the people of Israel, Christ waits in expectation for his beautiful bride in the Church (all gathering of all believers over the ages, both Jewish and Gentile). Like Ophelia, Ecclesia has plunged herself in water ending her life. When we as the Church plunge ourselves into the waters of Baptism we do so not as an act of suicide but to attain new life. St. Paul writes in Colossians that we are "buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." Baptism represents our identifying with Christ in his death and resurrection. We symbolically die in our sinful nature and rise to new life in Christ. Just like Hamlet, in the end everyone dies... but Jesus rose from the dead. proving that we have hope of eternal life in Christ

Baptism is not magic. Water Baptism only works if we are also baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now I know that there are a few different understandings in the Christian community of the concept of being "baptized in the Spirit." I am not referring to tarrying until a miraculous act (like speaking in tongues) occurs to prove that the Holy Spirit resides within us. Even though I have the utmost love for my Pentecostal and Charismatic brothers I do not believe that this is the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Christ promised to all believers. John the Baptist, like many other Jewish prophets and rabbis, practiced the Mikveh (think Jewish baptism). He became the most popular practitioner of this rite. John the Baptist practiced water baptism as a sign of repentance. Upon seeing Jesus, John announced him to be the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not personally perform baptisms (he had his Disciples performed that rite), however Jesus' sacrificial death is what allowed the Holy Spirit to come into the hearts of believers... all believers. Some believers spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost and performed miracles, some believers acted as missionaries spreading the Gospel throughout the far territories of the Roman Empire, some believers fought as Abolitionists to end slavery worldwide, some set up convents, poorhouses and orphanages to care for the forgotten, still today some visit the sick in hospitals and feed the homeless, while others smuggle Bibles into oppressive regimes under the threat of death. Jesus baptized all of these believers throughout the ages in the empowering Holy Spirit and the evidence is their faith and works. True baptism (in water, in the Holy Spirit and in a change of heart) isn't just a religious bath: true baptism acts as a spiritual Luffa sponge... it scrubs off the old dead man and allows him to be washed away. Baptism allows our selfish, sinful past and spiritual coldness to be buried at sea.



Chill October, John Everett Millais